Building San Antonio: Sustainability and the bottom line

Updated 12:41 pm, Tuesday, August 30, 2011

How is sustainability defined? Some experts label sustainability as an environmental issue, but it is certainly much more; it is a ‘thread' which addresses many aspects of social and economic issues.

The residential marketplace has been inundated with new products to assist in the goal of saving resources, but the commercial end of sustainability has the opportunity to have a much greater impact.

New and cutting-edge technologies can greatly reduce our need for resources and can be very simple. For example, buildings can use less light through the use of occupancy sensors and can reduce the wattage per square foot through daylight harvesting or by increasing the amount of efficient glass and exterior window shading. These simple solutions can target those areas of greatest energy consumption within a building and are fundamental to “going green.”

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Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword. It is now considered mainstream, saves money and is a requirement in order to stay competitive in the future.

In the most simple of terms, a sustainable building is one that is more efficient, lasts longer and performs better. The products that went into producing the building have been thought of in terms of the entire lifecycle cost versus initial capital cost. At its best, the materials used to construct a building are safer, made well and produced in a responsible manner.

In this global economy, the stakes are high as we transition into a low-carbon footprint society. The new business strategy, followed by many “big box retailers,” is to dramatically reduce overhead in terms of wasted energy costs, which in turn, supports a better environment and pushes the effort toward global leadership in sustainable business practices.

Our office recently designed the new 15,000-square-foot Kyle Public Works Administration building in Kyle to consume less energy by using sustainable local materials, maximize day lighting and collecting rainwater and HVAC condensate.

The building construction reduced the city's carbon footprint and, most importantly, saved money for the city.

The practice of architecture is at the forefront of the sustainable design movement and is pivotal to business side of the practice. How a building is designed and assembled and the way in which materials are selected (both raw and recycled) affects the amount of embodied energy within the design solution.

Financially, and in every other facet of business, it makes sense to build and produce sustainably. Simple, and yet we continue to build our homes and businesses in unsustainable ways that cripple the ability to grow a business.

The process of environment-friendly design generates additional revenues from better products and enables companies to create new business opportunities. In the pursuit of corporate innovation, I find that the best business entities now treat sustainability as the new innovation frontier.